Protect Him
by FireRose Prime
Summary: Every Prime is given a guardian at sparking.  But Optimus and his rare femme guardian have a problem, they are in love.  Full story to A La Mort. OP/OC
1. Sparked

Our story begins many centuries ago, long before the earth was even formed….

Sentinel Prime gazed down at his newly sparked son. The glow from the small optics lit his world like nothing else. But, he also knew the young mech would one day be the next prime, would take his place. In such a case, he knew the young mech would have his own guardian. Every prime had one. Sentinel himself had Lucentium. Speaking of the mech…

"Luc, he's a prime." He called over to the silver and orange mech standing over by the wall. Lucentium came closer to the young mech, gazing into his deep cobalt optics.

"He will be one of the greats." He said simply. "I wish the best of luck to whoever ends up with him. I shall be going to see the Allspark about that right now." Luc moved back away from the two primes and walked into the hallway.

Around the base, he marched, getting ever closer to his intended destination. The Allspark chamber was a heavily guarded area only from the outside. Lucentium easily slipped inside the quite chamber to see another sparkling lying just beneath the great cube. Upon closer inspection, he was shocked to discover the sparkling, the future prime's guardian, was a femme. There had only been one femme guardian before, Rosethorn, guardian to Prima. The theory went that only the most important primes would receive femme guardians, as they were the ultimate to deal with any situation. In addition there was always the risk of romance in mixing genders and Primes are almost always male.

"You will have quite the adventure ahead of you, little one. Now what is your designation?" He spoke quietly into the silence of the room. At his question the Allspark glowed and hummed.

"She shall be called Shadow Blaze, the one of darkness come to light it." The Allspark's genderless voice was final in its decision. Lucentium nodded in assent. Then, carrying the young femme, trekked back down the myriad of hallways to introduce the two sparklings.


	2. First Encounters

Lucentium carried the little femme back through the myriad of hallways, back to the Prime and his new sparkling mech. The silver mech walked back into the room. Sentinel had not moved any more than was expected. The Prime was still standing in the room, now holding his sparkling.

Shadow Blaze could feel the presence of someone important to her in the room she and the large mech had walked into. She squirmed in his arms, trying to reach the presence. But the mech's arms were getting in the way. Lucentium held on tighter to the wiggly femme. He knew what was going on; he remembered when he had first met and dealt with Sentinel.

"Hold still, little one. You will meet him in a moment." He whispered to her. She calmed a bit but was still a bit squirmy. He laughed at her solid impatience.

"Sentinel, I think there is someone here who would like to meet with little..." He realized then that he didn't know the small mech's name.

"Orion Pax. That is his name until he becomes Prime. Bring him over. I remember your impatience to meet me. You guardians don't differ." Sentinel chuckled loudly. Lucentium laughed too, but a bit nervously.

"Ugh Sentinel... I might rethink that." The silver mech brought his bundle over to the two primes. As soon as they were close the sparklings reached out for each other. It was then that Sentinel noticed what Lucentium had mentioned.

"It's a femme guardian." He said breathily. He was shocked and astounded. This was certainly an unexpected twist. He wasn't sure it was a welcome discovery. This meant his son was more important than he was. A pang of jealousy filled him as he gazed at the small red and blue mech. The current Prime and his guardian watched their successors interact for the first time.

"_Hey, who are you?"_ Little Orion was the first to spark a conversation in their sparkling language.

"_I'm Shadow Blaze. You must be my charge. What's your name?"_ Shadow crawled over to sit in front of him. He tilted his small head at her.

"_Charge? And I'm Orion Pax."_ He blinked his bright, solid blue optics at her.

Shadow Blaze giggled at him. He was cute. "_Yeah, I'm your guardian. The Allspark told me so when it created me. You're gonna be some really important mech, and it's gonna be my job to make sure you keep functioning."_ Her blue and gold optics met his blue ones. Orion shook his head in confusion. He still didn't get what she was going on about, but he decided he would just go along with it anyway.

"_You don't get it do you, Orion?"_ Shadow Blaze asked him. "_It's okay. You don't have to get it yet."_

_"Okay, Blaze. If you say so."_ Orion Pax crawled even closer to his new best friend and gave her a hug. She encircled her own arms around him.

As she did this she whispered into his audio, "_What is this for?"_

_"I felt like it, Blaze. Me and you gonna be best friends forever. Okay?" _His cute smile made her optics light up. She didn't say anything, just nodded and hugged him again.

The older mechs above them watched the scene with vetted interest. Their first moments together would be a very good indication of how future events would play out. They were both happy with the outcome thus far. The red prime turned to his lifelong friend and protector.

"Do you think they'll be able to handle it all? If he received a femme guardian, then they must be going up against some serious opposition." His own blue optics stared into Lucentium's blue/gold ones.

"They will both be trained well. We'll make sure they can handle anything thrown at them. Don't fret, my friend. They are in good hands." He smiled at his own charge and let some comforting feelings glide down their special bond. A bond that the two sparklings would soon learn to use with some major efficiency.


	3. Getting Along

Things were going well for both young Orion Pax and Shadow Blaze. By now training had started for the two of them. It was a bit difficult not being so close to each other like they wanted, but once they figured out how to use the special guardian bond they shared things got easier.

Young Orion waited in the main hall in front of the doors to their home in Iacon. Shadow Blaze and Lucentium had had to go out for some special guardian thing. Orion wasn't sure what they were up to; it was some sort of secret thing the two had. But he waited patiently by the door for his friend to return.

Not long after, she arrived with all due diligence. "Hey Orion!" She chimed cheerfully, walking through the double doors.

"Hey Blaze." Orion smiled softly. He always felt better with her around. His sire was the same way with his guardian.

"What do you want to do today? Now that I'm free from Lucentium's clutches." Shadow Blaze laughed heartily. Comfort was a two way street for them. She preferred to be as close to her charge, where she could do her job. Though this job of hers was getting her to be on good terms with the medic they had here. She and Ratchet were hitting it off nicely with all the times she had been in there. "You gonna send me to the med bay again today?" She finished off cheekily, and winked her optic at him.

"Hey, you're the one that keeps jumping in!" Orion shouted indignantly. He didn't like having her go to the med bay. He was frowning now. "I was thinking we could just take a walk around outside. If that works with you?" His smile quickly flipped at the thought of spending some alone time with his guardian.

"Sure." She reached out and grabbed his hand, dragging him back toward the door she had just come in. The sun shined brightly on their armor, glinting off like millions of brilliant gems. The metal streets stretched out before them, but she didn't want to go too far. Lucentium's warning to her still rang in her processor.

"Come on, I know where to go." Now it was Orion doing the dragging. He led them over to the crystal gardens they had. Everything had been imported from the huge crystal gardens of Praxus. Orion loved to visit them every chance he could.

Shadow Blaze loved the gardens too. She sent her wave of happiness and contentment down their bond to Orion. He simply returned it three fold. The two younglings wandered happily among the crystal, commenting to each other on the shifting rainbows they cast all around them.

The sun was sinking beyond the glimmering metal stained horizon as they reached the back of the gardens. The first of Cybertron's twin moons was creeping up on them. Orion glanced all around; he wasn't ready to go back. He wanted more time alone with Blaze. But she knew better.

"Come on, Orion. It's time to get back." She regrabbed his servo and started to pull him back along the path toward the nearest entrance. Orion resisted.

"Not quite yet. It's not quite dark. We have more time." He urged her.

She shook her head. "No. We have to get back. There are things going on Orion and it's still my job to protect you." She compelled him. He hated it when she plated that card.

"Why do I need protecting? I didn't ask you to, now did I?" He raised his voice at her. Her blue gold optics widened a fraction in shock. This was to be their first argument. She could do this.

"You need protecting because you are a hard helmed glitch who doesn't know when to stop." She kept her own voice level and even. This time she let go of his hand and simply threw him over her shoulders.

He thrashed against her, his strong servos pounding on her back. "Put me down!" He yelled to her as she walked. But she paid him no mind and kept walking. When they were back inside their home, she tossed him back to the ground. He got up and glared at her, optics dark with frustration.

"That was undignified and uncalled for." He spluttered out. HIs hands resting on his hip struts as he stood in front of her. But he was interrupted for yelling at her any further when his father and Lucentium came rushing in.

"There you two are!" The two older mechs shouted. Sentinel ran up to his sparkling, swooping the young mech into his arms and holding him tightly.

"There was an attack nearby. I was so worried when you weren't inside." Sentinel spoke frantically. Lucentium, on the other hand, turned his hard optics on to Shadow Blaze.

"Shadow Blaze, I am severely disappointed in you. It's your job in life to keep him safe, not let him wander around when things are escalating. I warned you about this earlier. Why didn't you listen?" He asked her sternly.

She didn't respond for a moment but then she spoke, "I am deeply sorry, teacher. It shall never happen again. I was wrong in my judgment and must learn to think things through more thoroughly." She did not raise her voice, but Orion wasn't so thrilled.

"No Luc, it wasn't her fault. She had to drag me back in here. I was the one being irresponsible." He crossed his arms behind his back. Lucentium and Sentinel both cast their gazes onto him. They then looked at each other and shook their heads.

"I suppose you have both learned from this," Lucentium spoke to the younglings, though his gaze never left his own charge. "No punishment this time. Now be gone with you both." The two wasted no time in hurrying off to their shared quarters.

"I'm sorry, Blaze." Orion spoke sadly as he plopped himself down on his berth. She shook her head and smiled, sending comfort down their bond.

"Don't be." She moved to his side and hugged him to her. He wrapped his own arms around her, a smile now gracing his own fair features. They fell into recharge in that same position.


	4. Going to Work

Older younglings now, Orion Pax and ShadowBlaze had finally been able to secure positions in the work force. Well, Orion had, for Shadow's job was to look after him. To do anything else would be too big a distraction for her, especially considering how much trouble Orion liked to get into. The young mech had, with help from their friend Alpha Trion, gotten a job in the data sector. He was charged with looking over any info that came across the data waves.

Sitting at his desk, the young mech was listening to various data streams. His blue helm rested on his hands as his optics darted around the room aimlessly. Nothing interesting had come up in the past few days. All the young mech had had to listen to is boring lectures and already known information. But he did look up once a noise was heard.

The doors to his complex slid open in the silence. Orion looked to see if it was one of his fellow colleagues. Seeing that no one was missing, he was unsure who it could be. He turned his blue optics to the door to see his mentor and guardian walking in.

"Hello Alpha, ShadowBlaze." He greeted them amiably.

"Orion, I trust things have been going well." Alpha Trion inclined his head. "We have," He gestured between the two of them. "Somethings that you must look out for."

"What is that?" The red and blue mech looked at his guardian. Said femme stood there stiffly.

"I have in my search come across a mech who calls himself Megatronus. As an undefeated gladiator, he has large crowds listening to him. He speaks of liberating Cybertron from the rule of the council and the Primes." ShadowBlaze informed her charge succinctly.

"Yeah I heard about him. He doesn't seem like much to me though. He does have a good message though, I agree with quite a lot of what he says. "Orion gave them both a look that said he was still quite skeptical at their statements. Alpha Trion, in preparation for such reaction, gave him in return a knowing look.

"I can imagine. In principal perhaps he is right; Cybertron's system does need to change. But his plan to go about it is wrong. In any case all we need you to do now is look out for him." Alpha Trion smiled gently to the data clerk before nodding his head and heading for the door. He did glance back once to look at ShadowBlaze. "You know what to do Shadow. Trust yourself."

She shook her head sadly but agreed nonetheless. As soon as the council mech was gone she went over to her charges side. Her arms slinked around him in a comforting hug she really needed. "Thanks." She whispered to him, sending it also down their bond. Orion smiled at her happily.

"Anytime, Blaze. You know that." He sent a playful shove down the bond. The interaction sent them both into a small fit of giggles. "Anyway I had better get back to my new assignment." His demeanor fell slightly, so she shoved him playfully back into his chair.

"Yeah you should."

The resulting silence was anything but uncomfortable. ShadowBlaze rested her helm against the chair she had commandeered next to him. The only real noise in the room was the clicking of his digits on the screen and the sound of their own systems humming. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she took in the calm peace and his presence. The two of them would often do something like this whenever the two could even find time to be in the same room together for a time frame longer than a few kliks. She reached her hand over and set it on his shoulder, only to have him jump up with a surge of surprise and rush out of the room. With a jump to balance herself, she started after him.

-Orion what are you up to? - She sent over the bond. He was too far away for her to ask him normally.

-Megatronus wants to meet me! But he said I had to meet him now or I would miss my chance.-

Her optics widened as she sped up to catch up with him. -Are you glitched? - She could see him shake his helm before he rounded a corner.

-No, this is my chance. I've got to help him. - She finally caught up with him. But when she got there, so was Megatronus. His already commanding, sharp frame sent shivers up her spinal strut but she held firm.

-I hope you know what you're doing.-

She felt Megatronus's optics graze over her lithe frame before focusing on Orion. "You must be Orion Pax. You obviously know who I am."

Orion grinned, sending his giddiness down to her. Her smile picked up slightly at his happiness. "Yes. This is my... friend ShadowBlaze. She wants to help too." He carefully omitted the fact that she was his guardian. Primus forbid any one figured out he was the future Prime. Especially where they were headed.

"All are welcome with us." His hand gestured for them to follow him. "Come with me and we will bring Cybertron back to her former glory." And they followed.


End file.
